"Since he took on his new role, the company's stock price has declined 9.1%, compared with a drop of 8.42% for Nasdaq stocks as a whole.

"Federal prosecutors who had investigated Google's practice of allowing ads from illegal online pharmacies…singled out Mr. Page. They said he had personal knowledge of the alleged crime and failed to prevent it. The federal prosecutors made their comments after Google paid $500 million last week to avoid criminal charges."

"Failure to reach a deal with music labels that would let Google's new Internet music service sell songs and albums"

"A public disclosure by the company in June that China-based "bad actors" spied on Gmail accounts"

"Failure to win a July auction for Nortel Networks Corp.'s technology patents."

We get the feeling from current Googlers that Page remains very well regarded inside the company.

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Editors' Picks

You keep insisting the MMI acquisition was nuts, particularly if they don't spin out the operating businesses, because, you insist, it'll be so hard to integrate the MMI's 19K employees. But Google has insisted that they plan to run MMI as a separate business, with Sanjay Jha continuing on to run the operating businesses... so can what exactly are the specific integration issues you're so concerned about? How could they possibly get so bad as to "break" Page's career?

If Google just concentrates on what they do best (Search software) and forgets the rest (all of the 50% finished Apps) they may have a chance. Google makes too many 50% finished apps, and turns them loose, not to be worked on anymore. Is this the way of the future?

Ok, here's the BRUTAL truth. Google HAD its day in the sun. The world is quickly moving beyond tiny webpage ads.

Google will always be very profitable, but it will never be a growth stock again. They have become like Microsoft, very profitable, but unexciting and always one step behind everyone else.

Google will "invest" billions in different businesses but they will never pan out. The losses will just accumulate. Just like Microsoft. MSFT tried and missed just about everything; video games, cable TV, handsets, MP3 players, etc, etc. They are always a day late and a dollar short. Same with Google.

Because of their giant cash balance and high profits, they can (and will) lose billions and billions in a half a dozen businesses. Take YouTube for example. If YouTube was on its own, it would be a break even mess that couldn't get to IPO because investors need profits to drive a stock. Instead it sits there hosting the entire worlds video content for free while they search for a profitable model.